“The idea of sharing items is that they tell a story. It’s a logical extension of that commitment to share objects so that the Aramco story can continue to be told.”
Just as the company’s history continues to grow and change over the coming years, the Aramco Archive & Records Center will grow and change with it. In that sense, the current Memorabilia Campaign is just the beginning of a process of creating and capturing the living memory of what is certainly one of the most important companies of our times.
Phil J. Embleton, a senior reviewer with the Content and Brand Compliance Unit, keeps records to assist him in his work of reviewing all content and research papers for external audiences.
“Those records are a living memory that employees can access for their benefit,” Embleton said. “The idea of sharing items is that they tell a story. It’s a logical extension of that commitment to share objects so that the Aramco story can continue to be told.”
The first objects that Embleton donated were a couple of safety awards from 1959 that he bought in a coin shop in al-Khobar. Safety awards were given in the 1950s, after the arrival of the company’s first safety engineer in 1940. By 1948, Aramco had an enviable safety record, Embleton said. “So these objects were emblematic of how the company created a safety culture.”
Since then, Embleton has donated other items:
- A large number of Aramco publications, including 30 years of AramcoWorld magazine that a secretary had collected over the years and catalogued
- Rubber stamps, used by the Review and Approval group to stamp approvals on documents
- Reference books, including a textbook about drilling.
“I have been here for over 20 years, but my children haven’t lived here so they wouldn’t understand the value of the things I have collected. These objects allow employees not yet born to tell our story to future generations.”
— Phil Embleton
— The Arabian Sun: March 03, 2024